Italian GT Monza: Raptor McLaren wins Race 1 while VSR keeps title hopes alive

Dean MacDonald and Riccardo Cazzaniga scored their second Italian GT Championship Sprint (CIGT) victory of the season with a late-race move of the #59 Raptor Engineering McLaren 720S GT3 on the #23 Gino Motorsport BMW M4 GT3 of Charles Weerts and Mathias Villadsen.

Further back, the #63 VSR Lamborghini Huracán GT3 of Georgi Dimitrov and Simone Riccitelli finished ahead of the #7 BMW Italia Ceccato Racing BMW M4 GT3 of championship leader Jens Klingmann and co-driver Ugo De Wilde, keeping the Lambo squad’s title hopes alive.

Weerts leads the way

The start was relatively calm, with only a handful of cars taking the escape road or ploughing through the gravel. At the front, pole sitter Weerts held on to the lead, although MacDonald stayed right behind him.

While Klingmann settled into eighth place, four positions ahead of his championship rival Simone Riccitelli in 12th, his teammate Parker Thompson found himself in a fierce battle over third place. Thompson, aboard the #8 BMW Italia Ceccato Racing BMW M4 GT3, was fighting Jef Machiels in the #51 Spirit of Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. There was more at stake than an overall podium, as the two crews went into the race separated by just nine points at the top of the Pro-Am standings.

On lap three they were already banging wheels going into the second chicane. At the exit of Lesmo 1, Thompson then muscled Machiels aside and sent the Ferrari into the gravel. Machiels was able to rejoin quickly but dropped to fifth, while Thompson took over third.

Pit stops turn the title fight

Up front, MacDonald shadowed Weerts throughout the opening stint and never dropped more than a second and a half behind the BMW. Further back, Klingmann lost eighth to Mattia Michelotto’s #66 VSR Lamborghini Huracán GT3 on lap 11, with Riccitelli only 1.7sec behind him.

VSR brought Riccitelli in as soon as the pit window opened on lap 12 and Dimitrov took over the #63. Klingmann followed a lap later, but the #7 had to serve 15 extra seconds for its win at Mugello. As a result, De Wilde rejoined 14 seconds behind Dimitrov and outside the points.

The leaders stayed out longer. MacDonald handed over to Cazzaniga at the end of lap 15, while Weerts set the fastest lap of the race before pitting two laps later. Villadsen rejoined in the lead, 2.5 seconds ahead of Cazzaniga.

Cazzaniga strikes on home ground

Villadsen’s lead did not last. Hometown hero Cazzaniga wiped out the gap within a single lap and sat right behind the BMW with 14 minutes to go. He outbraked Villadsen into the Variante della Roggia and took the lead.

From there, Cazzaniga pulled away. His only scare came on the final lap, when Rawad Sarieddine crashed heavily at Lesmo in the #12 Audi Sport Italia Audi R8 LMS GT3. Cazzaniga picked his way past the stricken Audi under yellow flags and won by 7.756 seconds, while Villadsen brought the Gino Motorsport BMW home in second.

It is the second victory of the year for Raptor Engineering and it lifts Cazzaniga and MacDonald to third in the championship in the team’s GT3 debut season.

Braschi takes third back

Meanwhile, the #51 Ferrari was on its way back. Machiels had fallen as far as seventh after the Lesmo incident and was up to fifth again by lap ten.

One lap later, he forced his way past Giuseppe Forenzi’s #77 Faems Team BMW M4 GT3, but in the scrap Lorenzo Ferrari slipped ahead of both in the #62 Double TT Racing Ferrari 296 GT3. Andrea Frassineti followed through in the #99 Tresor Attempto Racing Audi R8 LMS, which left Forenzi seventh after starting the lap in fourth. Machiels repassed Ferrari on lap 12 and handed over to Francesco Braschi from fourth place two laps later.

Once the stops were done, Braschi was fifth behind Anthony McIntosh, who had taken over the #8 BMW from Thompson. He passed Alex Aka, who had replaced Frassineti in the #99 Audi, on lap 19 and then closed on McIntosh by more than a second a lap.

On lap 24, Braschi slipstreamed around the outside of the BMW through Curva Grande, but he overshot the Variante della Roggia and had to hand the position back. He attacked again straight away and outbraked McIntosh into the first chicane to take third place with five minutes left. With it came the Pro-Am victory, which stretches the Ferrari crew’s class lead to 14 points. McIntosh then lost fourth to Aka on the final lap.

Piergiacomo Randazzo and Kevin Gilardoni won the Am class in the #68 DL Racing Lamborghini Huracán GT3, finishing 19th overall. They were just 0.741 seconds ahead of Fabrizio Fontana and Stefano Gai, who took 20th overall in the #69 Spirit of Racing Ferrari 296 GT3.

Championship goes to the final race

Behind the podium fight, the handicap had already settled the duel between the title rivals. Dimitrov passed Jasin Ferati’s #55 Nova Race BMW M4 GT3 for eighth on lap 23, while De Wilde could not climb higher than 13th. That gave the VSR crew three points and cut Klingmann’s lead from 20 to 17, with 20 still available on Sunday.

Because only the best seven results count, Dimitrov and Riccitelli must win Race 2 and need the #7 BMW to finish outside the top ten. They start right next to each other, with Dimitrov seventh and De Wilde eighth, and this time neither car carries a time handicap.

Postiglione and Comandini win Italian GT Cup opener

Earlier in the afternoon, Vito Postiglione and Stefano Comandini won the first Italian GT Cup race in the #101 Best Lap Ferrari 296 Challenge after starting 13th. Postiglione gained six places on a chaotic opening lap that brought out the safety car and came through in seventh. He then held his place in the top ten while Giacomo Pollini led the opening stint in the #106 Pollini Racing Lamborghini Huracán ST.

The pit stops turned the race around. The Ferrari carried no time handicap, so its stop was 20 seconds shorter than the Lamborghini’s, and Comandini rejoined in the lead on lap 14. Behind him, Matteo Pollini fought his way back to second, but Comandini controlled the gap and won by 5.744 seconds.

As a result, Postiglione and Comandini go into the finale leading Division 1 Pro-Am by three points from the Pollini cousins, with teammates Alex Frassineti and Lorenzo Pegoraro nine points back. In Division 1 Am, race winner Ettore Carminati now leads Francesco Galli by seven points and Francesco Coassin by 12, after both rivals failed to score. Massimo Abbati wrapped up the Division 2 Am title with a race to spare.